The Brief

Orange County officials are taking control of services at the county’s signature mental health campus, a move that pushes out a nonprofit organization that was paid tens of millions of dollars in public funds to run it for the last two years.

The action terminates a three-year contract early and comes after a damning audit found the organization, Mind OC, failed to ensure proper staffing and effective outcomes of key services.

LAist obtained the audit, which has not been previously reported, through a public records request. It's the first audit of Mind OC’s management of the mental health campus — which began in October 2022. To date, the county has paid the nonprofit more than $38 million to manage services at the campus, according to county records.

Those services include substance abuse treatment and mental health crisis programs. The campus, located in the city of Orange, served some 3,500 people in fiscal year 2023-2024, according to data provided by the O.C. Health Care Agency.

The public-private effort was created pre-pandemic as county officials came under increasing pressure to deal with a very public homelessness emergency and high-profile incidents involving people experiencing mental health crises. The goal was to create mental health hubs where, regardless of your insurance status, people can find treatment.

The shift in operations at Be Well's Orange campus marks the second time the county has lost confidence in a contractor hired to execute their plan. The previous change in 2022 shut down substance abuse treatment services at the Orange campus for more than a year.

County officials say a change was needed

Veronica Kelley, director of the Orange County Health Care Agency, told LAist that the contract with Mind OC to run the campus will end Sept. 30. "What we don't want to do is continue down a road that we know is not going well," she said.

Kelley said that Mind OC did not meet its contract obligations to bring in funding from private insurance or other private revenue to help offset the cost of taxpayer-funded services. She also said it was costing the county twice as much to pay the nonprofit to run the campus as it would for the county to run it themselves.

"We have switched back to a model that we know works so that it is more efficient and that we can ensure directly that services are being provided in an effective and regulatory required manner," she said.

A spokesperson for Mind OC said the nonprofit has a meeting scheduled with county leaders on Wednesday and declined to make anyone available for an interview until after that meeting takes place. Their three-year contract to run the Orange campus had been set to run through next June.

Mind OC will continue in a more limited role at the Be Well campus in Orange, managing the physical property, according to a joint statement released Tuesday by Kelley and Mind OC CEO Phil Franks. Mind OC also has another lucrative county contract to run an even bigger mental health campus being built in Irvine.

The county health care agency intends to continue working with the onsite subcontractors, Exodus Recovery Inc. and HealthRIGHT 360, "to ensure continued high quality psychiatric crisis and substance use disorder services," according to the news release issued late Tuesday after questions from LAist.

Audit flags lack of training, questionable billing

An audit report from July and subsequent memo from Kelley to the O.C. Board of Supervisors notes 38 problems with Mind OC's management of Be Well’s Orange campus including concerns that lack of oversight could have led to “possible fraud.”

Kelley told LAist that the possibility of fraud was under investigation, and no conclusions had been reached.

Among the issues flagged in the audit:

• Inadequate staffing of crisis programs, which are run by subcontractor Exodus Recovery Inc. The audit notes "numerous occasions" of unanswered calls or instances where calls were rerouted to a call center in Los Angeles. 
• Duplicative billing for residential treatment claims by subcontractor HealthRight360. The audit also notes Mind OC's lack of "consistent and independent monitoring" of HealthRight360 to ensure appropriate billing.
• Failure to ensure subcontractor HealthRight360 provided appropriate services and procedures for treating substance use disorders. 
• No evidence that HealthRight360 employees completed the county's required annual trainings, including on substance withdrawal management. 
• No evidence that mental health providers at the campus followed up with clients after discharge to prevent relapses and link them to continued care.
• Failure to meet the goal of having 26% of the campus' services paid for via private insurance. Currently, according to the audit, revenue from private insurance makes up just 2.6% of the total, meaning public dollars are paying for the remainder.
• Failure to meet the goal, laid out in Mind OC's contract, to refer 95% of clients in the crisis residential program to a lower level of care. Only about half of these clients have been discharged to a lower level of care, according to the audit. 

In Kelley's memo to supervisors about the audit, dated Aug. 15, she wrote that she had taken a call earlier that day from Phillip Franks, Mind OC's CEO, who told her the subcontractor HealthRight360 "was 'not going to make it'” citing billing issues, poor staffing and poor quality of care.

"All of this should have been addressed and known about if [Mind OC] was fulfilling the requirements of the [contract]," Kelley wrote to the supervisors.

Kelley told LAist that following the audit’s findings in July, Mind OC submitted a corrective action plan to the county. She said the county was ending its contract with Mind OC for "convenience," not "for cause."

Vitka Eisen, CEO of HealthRIGHT 360, told LAist that she believed most of the problems flagged in the audit were the result of her organization having to work through Mind OC as an intermediary, instead of working directly with the county, as it does with other public agencies across the state.

"It's an extremely unusual relationship," she said of MindOC's role on the Be Well campus.

HealthRIGHT 360 began operating for the first time in O.C., on the Be Well campus, in December 2023. Eisen said, as a new provider in the county, they've had numerous questions about documentation and billing that would have been more easily answered by county health officials, but "we have to go to MindOC with questions," she said.

LAist reached out to Exodus Recovery Inc. by phone and will update this story if we hear back.

A homeless encampment in Santa Ana's Civic Center Plaza. The encampment was cleared in 2018 as a federal judge and others put pressure on the county to do more to help unhoused people.

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The backstory

Mind OC, which does business as Be Well OC, was launched in 2017 with the goal of creating several mental health hubs in Orange County funded through both public funds and private health insurance. The organization has had strong support from the O.C. Board of Supervisors, including Supervisor Andrew Do, who helped craft the concept in 2015 as a member of the board's ad hoc committee on mental health services.

Prior to the formation of Mind OC, county officials faced scrutiny from a federal judge for failing to provide adequate mental health services for unhoused people, and failing to fully spend mental health dollars in the county.

Mind OC, and the Be Well campus, which opened in Orange in 2021 as a public-private partnership, were meant to address those problems. Initially, Kelley said, the county ran the Orange campus, and Mind OC managed the property and security. Then, in October 2022, the county signed a contract with Mind OC to oversee all operations and subcontractors at the Be Well campus.

The following year, county health officials raised concerns about the campus' substance abuse treatment contractor Telecare Corp.

Shortly after those concerns were raised, the county shuttered Be Well's residential treatment program, run by Telecare, for more than a year until the county could find a new contractor.

HealthRIGHT 360 took over. The most recent audit from July found similar problems remain — for example, failing to provide required services and needed follow-up with clients after they're discharged.

This past June, the O.C. Board of Supervisors entered into another contract with Mind O.C. to build an even bigger mental health campus — 22 acres — in Irvine. The board approved $40 million in federal pandemic response money for the construction, and at least another $66 million has been provided through state and federal funds.

Kelley said the county's recent decision to cancel its contract with Mind OC only applies to its contract to manage Be Well's campus in Orange.

She also said the contract cancellation would not affect the separate contracts Mind OC has with O.C. cities to handle psychiatric and drug emergencies in lieu of armed police officers.

A volunteer with Wound Walk OC takes the vital signs of a man sleeping in an underpass in central Orange County.

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Responses to the audit and contract termination

Michael Sean Wright, who runs the street medicine group Wound Walk OC and was briefed on the audit and contract termination by LAist, said it showed county officials hadn’t learned from the past.

He pointed back to a 2022 audit that revealed problems with Telecare's operations on the Be Well campus.

"We gave an additional millions of millions of millions of dollars and allowed the same lack of oversight to continue. Mind OC stayed with the keys and the checks," Wright said.

He added that despite Be Well's original promise of expanded substance abuse treatment services in O.C., it's still difficult to find detox and substance abuse programs for people who want them, many of whom are unhoused.

"Time is of the essence," he said. "There is no place that will take you at night."

Supervisor Katrina Foley said the county's decision to take over management of the Be Well campus from Mind OC was part of the "trial and error" that has come along with the county’s efforts to get mental health care to anyone who needs it, regardless of insurance.

"If something isn't working, we have to be willing to pivot quickly in this dynamic environment," she said.

"Making sure that people are trained and in compliance with rules and regulations and systems … that is something that the county behavioral health staff can do maybe better than a private nonprofit," Foley said.

Foley said the county had made "tremendous progress" since the time, in 2016 and 2017, when large encampments clogged the courthouse plaza in Santa Ana and stretched for miles along the Santa Ana riverbed. At the time, many residents in those encampments said they had untreated substance abuse and other mental health problems.

Per a court settlement, the encampments were cleared in 2018 in exchange for the county and O.C. cities agreeing to build more shelters and permanent supportive housing, and agreeing to connect unhoused people with mental health treatment.

"I'm actually very proud of the work that our county staff have done to build out the system of care, but it's an evolving process," she said. "We want to get this right before we complete building the much bigger [Be Well] campus in Irvine," she said.

Days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, Californians across the state took to the streets to voice their opposition against federal immigration enforcement tactics and President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

Over the weekend thousands of demonstrators gathered in Sacramento, San Francisco and the Bay Area, the Central Valley and Southern California including Los Angeles and San Diego in remembrance of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was killed during an ICE operation.

Protests remained largely peaceful, though one demonstration Friday night in Santa Ana led to U.S. Department of Homeland Security officers firing what appeared to be less lethal munitions into a crowd of protesters, according to ABC 7. One officer was reported dragging a protester who was bloodied by the clash, but local police did not report any arrests from that event.

The shooting also came into focus on Saturday during a gubernatorial candidate forum in L.A., reports the Los Angeles Times. During the union-backed event, which included a panel of eight Democrats, U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell said “Ms. Good should be alive today.”

The Trump administration has maintained that the officer who shot Good feared for his life. The California Republican Party circulated a video of First Assistant U.S. Attorney and former Republican Assemblymember Bill Essayli defending ICE’s actions, arguing that “officers are fully justified in using any force they need to protect their lives.”

Good’s killing follows the death of Keith Porter, another American, who was shot and killed on Dec. 31 by an off-duty ICE officer in the L.A. neighborhood of Northridge.

In response to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, some Democratic state legislators have recently introduced bills to curb ICE activity, including proposals that would limit arrests in courthouses and enable Californians to sue for damages from federal agents — though questions about the measures’ legality and enforcement capabilities remain.

Hundreds of protesters have been killed in Iran, rights groups say, as videos showing security forces violently trying to suppress demonstrations filter through, despite an internet blackout imposed by the Iranian regime facing a nationwide challenge to its decades-long rule.

As the White House weighs whether to respond to the crackdown on this popular uprising against the Iranian clerical establishment long hostile to America, President Trump has both threatened "strong" military action against Iran should more demonstrators be killed, and said on Air Force One late Sunday that a meeting was "being set up" with Iranian officials.

"Iran wants to negotiate, yes. We might meet with them," he said. "But we may have to act because of what is happening before the meeting."

Iran, which has threatened to strike Israel and American bases and ships in the region should the U.S. take military action against it, has indicated that it would be open to negotiation. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, on Monday said a channel remained open with the United States. "Through that channel, the necessary messages are exchanged," he said.

Officials will brief Trump on Tuesday on options for intervening, according to the Wall Street Journal. These could include everything from military strikes, to using secret cyber weapons, to sanctions, to helping meet the needs of the protesters.

Death toll mounts

The Human Rights Activists in Iran monitoring group, or HRA, that is based in the United States but maintains extensive networks across Iran, has documented 495 fatalities among protesters, with over 500 other reported cases under review. Some members of the Iranian security forces have also been killed. HRA says over 10,600 people have been arrested in these 15 days of protests.

"We're seeing horrifying images," Skylar Thompson, the deputy director of HRA, told NPR, adding that security forces are using "military grade weapons" to disperse crowds.

Protests that began over the collapse of the country's currency in an economy already squeezed by international sanctions have spread and grown into calls to end Iran's theocracy. HRA says it has documented some 580 protests in more than 185 cities in the last two weeks.

The regime responded by cutting the country's internet and phone networks last Thursday. Despite the blackout, some videos of the demonstrations have reached the rest of the world, likely using Starlink satellite transmitters. They show massive crowds of demonstrators, and, as anger mounts, there have been chants of "death to the dictator," referring to the country's supreme leader, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

On Monday, in response to the protests, Iranian leaders drew large crowds of pro-government demonstrators to the streets. Iranian state television showed images of demonstrators thronging Tehran toward Enghelab Square, or "Islamic Revolution" Square, in the capital. It called the demonstration an "Iranian uprising against American-Zionist terrorism."

State broadcasters have framed the anti-government protests as actions fomented by the U.S. and Israel and have said "armed rioters" were being arrested. On Saturday the Iranian attorney general warned that anyone taking part would be considered an "enemy of God," a sentence that carries the death penalty. Iran's military said it was ready to "firmly safeguard national interests."

Footage geolocated to a morgue in Kahrizak just south of the Iranian capital, and highlighted by various rights groups, shows bodies wrapped in black mortuary bags on the ground outside as grieving relatives search among them for loved ones. A health worker at a hospital in Tehran told BBC Persian that protesters were arriving with gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

Trump told Fox News last week that he has "put Iran on notice" and that if the regime shoots at demonstrators the U.S. will hit Iran "very hard." "I've said it very loud and very clear, that's what we're going to do," he said. On Sunday, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that with its violent response to the demonstrators, Iran's leaders were "starting to" cross the threshold that could trigger a U.S. response.

Economic crisis

Iranian experts say the country's regime is the weakest it's been since the Islamic Republic came into existence in 1979. The collapsed economy is making life untenable for many Iranians. "There are people who can't buy dairy or meat or, you know, just even beans," Golnaz Esfandiari, the managing editor of the Persian language service of Radio Free Europe, told NPR. "Also people have had enough of the nearly 50 years of repression, mismanagement, corruption."

Iran has recently lost geopolitical status, as proxy militias that it had long used as a security buffer and to project influence come under attack. Israel's war in Gaza has dramatically reduced the power of Hamas. And the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria a little over a year ago cut off vital supply lines to the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia, Hezbollah.

"Syria was a lifeline for Hezbollah," said  Lina Khatib, visiting scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School's Middle East Initiative. "Syria was the place through which Hezbollah got a lot of its finances as well as weapons, from Iran."

Khatib says the Iranian regime "persistently for decades asked the people of Iran to sacrifice, including economically, for the sake of the survival of the Islamic Republic" as it poured countless sums of money into these proxies. But the weakening of these militias, she says, combined with Israeli and American strikes on targets inside Iran in June last year, have "left people feeling that they sacrificed for nothing."

Outside Iran, Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the country's last shah and a prominent voice in the fragmented opposition, has encouraged Iranians to continue their demonstrations. "Do not abandon the streets. My heart is with you," he said in a recorded address. "I know that I will soon be by your side." While some videos have emerged showing protesters calling for Pahlavi to take the reins of power, it's not clear how widespread this support is.

For now, experts say, expectations that the regime could collapse may be premature. While the protests have seen Iranians from many demographics voice their grievances, there is no sign yet of defections or dissent in the security apparatus that maintains the country's theocracy.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Some celebrities donned anti-ICE pins at the Golden Globes on Sunday in tribute to Renee Good, who was shot and killed in her car by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer last week in Minneapolis.

The black-and-white pins displayed slogans like "BE GOOD" and "ICE OUT," introducing a political angle into the awards show after last year's relatively apolitical ceremony.

Mark Ruffalo, Wanda Sykes and Natasha Lyonne wore the pins on the red carpet, while Jean Smart and Ariana Grande donned them once inside the ballroom. Smart had the pin on her dress as she accepted the award for best performance by a female actor in a musical or comedy series.

Since the shooting Wednesday, protests have broken out across the country, calling for accountability for Good's death as well as a separate shooting in Portland where Border Patrol agents wounded two people. Some protests have resulted in clashes with law enforcement, especially in Minneapolis, where ICE is carrying out its largest immigration enforcement operation to date.

"We need every part of civil society, society to speak up," said Nelini Stamp of Working Families Power, one of the organizers for the anti-ICE pins. "We need our artists. We need our entertainers. We need the folks who reflect society."

Congressmembers have vowed an assertive response, and an FBI investigation into Good's killing is ongoing. The Trump administration has doubled down in defending the ICE officer's actions, maintaining that he was acting in self-defense and thought Good would hit him with her car.

Just a week before Good was killed, an off-duty ICE officer fatally shot and killed 43-year-old Keith Porter in Los Angeles. His death sparked protests in the Los Angeles area, calling for the officer responsible to be arrested.

Organizers bring grassroots push to Golden Globes parties

The idea for the "ICE OUT" pins began with a late-night text exchange earlier this week between Stamp and Jess Morales Rocketto, the executive director of a Latino advocacy group called Maremoto.

They know that high-profile cultural moments can introduce millions of viewers to social issues. This is the third year of Golden Globes activism for Morales Rocketto, who has previously rallied Hollywood to protest the Trump administration's family separation policies. Stamp said she always thinks of the 1973 Oscars, when Sacheen Littlefeather took Marlon Brando's place and declined his award to protest American entertainment's portrayal of Native Americans.

So, the two organizers began calling up the celebrities and influencers they knew, who in turn brought their campaign to the more prominent figures in their circles. That initial outreach included labor activist Ai-jen Poo, who walked the Golden Globes' red carpet in 2018 with Meryl Streep to highlight the Time's Up movement.

"There is a longstanding tradition of people who create art taking a stand for justice in moments," Stamp said. "We're going to continue that tradition."

Allies of their movement have been attending the "fancy events" that take place in the days leading up to the Golden Globes, according to Stamp. They're passing out the pins at parties and distributing them to neighbors who will be attending tonight's ceremony.

"They put it in their purse and they're like, 'Hey would you wear this?' It's so grassroots," Morales Rocketto said.

The organizers pledged to continue the campaign throughout awards season to ensure the public knows the names of Good and others killed by ICE agents in shootings.
Copyright 2026 NPR

You can’t miss them. The striking braids are woven with delicate lace and vibrant ribbon. It’s the statement and an Indigenous art that two SoCal Latinas are using as a form of open activism against the ongoing ICE raids and to support undocumented communities.

Dulce Flores and Angie Portillo, co-founders of Ponte Your Moños, have braided thousands of trenzas, intricate braids that have roots dating back thousands of years before the Spanish colonization of Mexico.

Today, amid the ongoing ICE raids, the two say it’s their message:

“The braids signified a way for us to just show that we're here,” Flores said. “We’re here, and we're not going anywhere.”

The women behind Ponte Your Moños use traditional ribbon braids as a form of open activism and resistance.

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Since June, they’ve organized over two dozen pop-up events, braiding the hair of over 2,000 people.

Proceeds have gone towards people who have been detained by ICE and to support immigrant families afraid to go out for necessities like work or groceries.

“It made me feel anger. At the same time, we needed to figure out a way to really come together and do something to fundraise and give back to the community,” Flores said. “That's how Ponte Your Moños really came together – to braid because it was an act of culture and care and resistance, and also a space where Latinos and other individuals can come together.”

Ponte Your Moños, translates to “Put on your bows.” The name of the initiative was inspired by a Mexican expression, “No te pongas tus moños,” or “Don’t put on your bows,” which means don’t be demanding or intense. But Flores and Portillo flipped its meaning and now say, do that and more.

“Fashion is political,” Portillo said. “You don't like us, so I'm going to show you in your face that I don't care. I'm very proud of what I'm wearing, of what I am … y soporta porque (and deal with it because) we are not going anywhere.”

Indigenous communities wore trenzas as part of daily life, for celebrations and self-expression.

“(Braiding) carries that history, the identity, the ancestry,” Flores added. “Braids here for Latinos have become a visible way of expression of their pride and their resistance.”

Alexandro José Gradilla, associate professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at Cal State Fullerton, said the history of the trenzas interwoven with the ribbon mark survivance – a type of survival, resistance and existence mixed together.

“In many ways, the style survived despite multiple historical attempts to wipe it out,” Gradilla said. “The everyday existence of most Latina, Latino people, especially immigrants, is invisibility. These trenzas are definitely about being seen, but more importantly, being seen on one's own terms.”

Flores said today, many Latina women are wearing them as a symbol of cultural appreciation, pride and to make a statement.

What role does hair play in politics? 

The two had taken a page from history during the Chicano Movement when Zoot Suits were used as a form of resistance.

Gradilla said visibility makes braiding an important political tool, a form of activism that calls attention to oneself.

“It is about understanding the mainstream gaze of how we are looked at, either we're sexualized or we're looked at as criminals. When one self-fashions or self-creates, you're saying, ‘No, this is who I am. You do not get to impose or project your stereotype or your image of me onto me,’” Gradilla said.

The ribbon braids were worn by Indigenous women during times of conquest and also by the Adelitas, the female soldiers of the Mexican revolution, he added.

“Now you're seeing a modern twist on it in many ways. I would call it a form of Rasquache politics,” Gradilla said. Rasquachismo is a resourceful form of political expression to reclaim narratives and stereotypes. “You can still be wearing your hoodie, your jeans, but you have these trenzas, and that's what makes it Rasquache, you're mixing two cultural forms into one.”

Flores said Ponte Your Moños is about solidarity and storytelling.

“Beyond this project, Ponte Your Moños really creates a space of healing and education and cultural expression, especially (with) what's going on,” Flores said. “It's a way for us to really connect back with our culture, but at the same time, show that resistance and also give back to the community that is being affected.”

The initiative’s next pop-up is part of the Galentine’s Day Pop-Up Estez Beauty Bar and Spa at 2615 W. 190th St in Redondo Beach from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.